emanuele crasto
1/5
We moved in July 2020. Our flat was located in a crowded area, so I decided not to leave my bike outside and park it at the entrance of the property as I thought it was safer.
As I was aware that this could be against the property rules, I asked to a member of their team whilst working in the building if this was ok and they confirmed so.
My bike was left at the entrance under the staircase but after a few days it was moved to a locked cabinet where the management company stored their working tools (and where all tenants have access to their electricity meters), I thought that perhaps this was considered a safer place since they were using it to keep other stuff and left it there.
Since they had parked my bike there, I carried on using the cabinet as a storage unit, ensuring it was cleaned after my rides. The staff from Virtus kept visiting our property every week or so and no one ever raised a concern about it (there is a big notice board at the entrance where they put posts up).
6 months later. One day, I got ready to go to work (I lost my job in the middle of the pandemic and the bike was being used also to commute to work) and surprisingly my bicycle wasn't there anymore.
I initially thought that someone had stolen it from the cabinet, however I rang the property management just to double check if they had heard anything and they confirmed that my bicycle (a brand new bike valued at £500) had been given away, as it was parked against the property rules and this was considered a fire hazard. I explained that the bike was there because they had placed it there and I couldn't understand why they just decided to remove it all of a sudden without any notice to myself.
The gentleman on the phone was pretending to help me but it was clear that he was just inventing excuses (for example: he kept claiming that a notice had been left on my bicycle for 2 weeks, I hadn't seen anything) and kept attacking me, making me feel guilty for doing something "illegal" and being extremely rude with me. He promised that he would have called me back for an update about my bike, since he didn't know where it was.
I had to wait for weeks whilst he was pretending to find out where my bike had been taken. I heard that my bike had been thrown away, sold on ebay, given to charity, kept in a deposit in the middle of nowhere... everytime he had a different story.
I asked for the number of the company who took care of the disposal, so I could arrange a collection but he refused to give it to me as it was clear that VIRTUS had taken care of the disposal (or the eBay sale).
Now my question is: If my bike represented a hazard, why did they move it to the enclosed cabinet instead of throwing it away at a first instance? Why do they allow other tenants to store their items in public areas?
People leave kids bikes, prams, rubbish, someone abandoned a big bulky wardrobe on the staircase for weeks (made of wood - highly flammable) and no action was taken, was this not a considered a fire hazard? This would have been represented as a massive danger during an evacuation.
My bicycle didn't obstruct any fire exit and it was in an enclosed space, next to the items THEY store to fix around the property (lamps, posts, lights). Why did they decide to get rid of it all of a sudden?
I tried to have a human discussion with their staff but all I know is that a brand new bike disappeared and Virtus didn't have a clear answer, although they admitted that they took care of "throwing it away".
In addition to my story, I would like to point out that their properties are dirty! People kept leaving bottles of wine/beer in the public areas and they were collected after weeks, the stairs were filthy as well as the entrance.
The other tenants kept vandalising the public areas and no action was taken, as a result we had to sleep with a broken front door for months as it didn't close properly and trust me, this is not ideal when you have a baby (we kept spotting strangers around the building due to the unprotected access).
